Appreciation Of Maris Long Time In Coming

61 Homers In `61 Seen As Huge Achievement

controversial, a mark forged in the crucible of a pennant race and in competition with a more popular teammate.

Thirty years ago, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees soared where no major-leaguer had gone before or since when he hammered 61 home runs, breaking the hallowed mark of 60 set 34 years earlier by Babe Ruth, baseball`s leading legend.

Considering Maris had just one homer after April and only 12 after May, the record remains a towering achievement of ability, stamina and will. Like a great miler who increases his speed as the race wears on, Maris picked up the pace and maintained it. He slugged 15 home runs in June, 13 in July and 11 in August.

Over the final month of the season, when Maris couldn`t turn anywhere without running into reporters, photographers or autograph-seekers, when at one point he began losing patches of his hair, the Yankee right-fielder hit 10 more, culminating with No. 61 on the final day of the season.

Today the official Major League record book lists Maris` 61 at the top of its home run chart.

But three decades ago it was a different story. Instead of praise and acclaim, Maris` new mark generated jealousy, recrimination and questions.

Unlike Cecil Fielder`s 51 homers last year, which brought cheers from baseball fans grateful to see the first 50-plus homer season in the majors since 1977, Maris was jeered. (Fielder`s 27 home runs after 73 games was even with Maris` pace, but he couldn`t keep up).

It`s not fair, Maris` critics said. Mickey Mantle, the true heir to the Yankee tradition who finished with 54 homers, should have been the one to break Babe`s record.

American League expansion made the record bogus, they argued, because it diluted the pitching.

Worst of all, Maris, playing in baseball`s first 162-game season, had eight more games than the Babe to hit 61.

Prodded by older baseball writers who had once been the Babe`s drinking pals, Commissioner Ford Frick ruled midway through the 1961 season that Maris had to catch Ruth by 154 games or have any subsequent homers marked with a special notation; sportswriter Larry Merchant dubbed this an ``asterisk.``

Rather than challenge Frick`s bizarre ruling, as many writers did last winter when the Hall of Fame ruled that Pete Rose`s name could not appear on the ballot, most of the baseball media in 1961 went along with the

commissioner.

Baseball scholarship 30 years ago was not what it has become today, and no one pointed out that when Ruth set his first home run record of 29 in 1919 it was considered legitimate, even though he had taken 154 games while Ned Williamson`s old mark of 27 was set in a 112-game season in 1884.

No one wrote that 24 of Maris` homers (nearly 40 percent) were hit off Baltimore, Detroit and the White Sox, the Yankees` closest competitors.

Maris hit eight homers off the second-place Tigers, including three off 23-game winner Frank Lary. He hit 13 off the White Sox, including five in Comiskey Park, one of baseball`s toughest longball challenges. Two of the homers were off longtime Sox ace Billy Pierce.

Twenty-eight of Maris` homers that season, nearly half, were hit off pitchers who finished the year with an ERA under 4.02, the American League average.

And Maris wasn`t just smacking homers. He led the majors with 142 RBIs, 366 total bases and 132 runs, which tied Mantle.

After the 154th game, in which the Yankees clinched the pennant and Maris hit No. 59 (barely missing No. 60 in two other at-bats), many fans and writers considered the chase over.

Only 8,000 fans at Yankee Stadium saw Maris hit No. 60, and the New York papers were beginning to devote more attention to the upcoming Yanks-Reds World Series.

Fewer than 25,000 fans saw the historic No. 61, and many of them were jammed into the right-field stands and bleachers after a restaurant owner offered $5,000 to whomever caught the record-breaking homer.

Ten years ago, on the 20th anniversary of the 1961 season, Maris said,

``The press makes sure that (home run record) doesn`t change. They will talk about every record in the book but that one.``

Maris died in 1985, 24 years after his epic season and just as he was beginning to win acceptance among baseball fans. The Yankees recently had retired his No. 9 jersey. He drew cheers at old-timers` games and was praised roundly by fellow players-teammates such as Mantle and foes like Warren Spahn. Said Spahn of the 61 homers, ``It`s a great record.``

Thirty years later, Major League baseball agrees. There are no asterisks or any special notations in the record book. Maris has been given his proper place.

He wasn`t a Mantle or a Ruth. He much preferred family barbecues to the bright lights of New York.

Instead, Roger Maris can be viewed as the athletic equivalent of some other no-nonsense, crewcut heroes from the early 1960s: the Mercury astronauts.

For in 1961, this plain-spoken left-handed slugger had the right stuff to complete one of baseball`s greatest missions.